 I'm not sure where I first heard about this book, but it piqued my interest, and when the library obligingly got a copy, I was excited to check it out.
The Apparition Phase is a good, old-fashioned ghost story. Literally. It read like a direct inheritor of M.R. James and authors of that era, only less dense and soporific. In fact, it kept me up and entertained me for all of its considerable bulk. And if it didn't quite dazzle me ...well, it's partly because I'm a tough critic and partly because the good, old-fashioned stories like that seldom do. They are simply too sedate and muted by definition for a "dazzle." Be that as it may, this was a very enjoyable and clever read. The butter-soft prose flowed beautifully, and there were some genuinely well rendered scenes of supernatural unease. As the title suggests, this is a ghost story. A good one. In the beginning, you meet a set of morbid twins and then follow one of them through a few years of being variously haunted. To maintain the "classic feel," the book eschews modernity and takes place in the early seventies. In England, where all the polite hauntings are. This is one of those books that is written for adults but features teenage protagonists. I stay away from YA and firmly believe that all adults should, but this novel is done with enough skill to avoid that "stories for unformed brains" territory. The pacing is a bit leisurely at times, and the penultimate scene is quite drawn out, but it all still works. And in the end, there's such a pitch-perfect melancholic epilogue that it wraps up the entire novel, its mood and tone, just so. All in all, a worthy read for genre fans who likes their scares subtle and literary. An elegiac, elegant, eloquent tale of being haunted. Recommended.
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 I've read and quite enjoyed Chapman's books, but I started with his recent ones. Now that our library finally got a copy of his debut, I was able to indulge the completist in me and check it out.
Well ... first of all, it's interesting to see the evolution of Chapman as a writer. And he has improved quite a bit. The Remaking shows promise and potential, but its choppy repetitiveness leaves a lot to be desired. It works nicely in beefing up the page count, since the author frequently employs tricks like one-line paragraphs. And this is for sentences that often do not need such distinctions. There's also a lot of excess emphasis and reinteractions. I suppose there's no second of all. The strength lies in the plot, which involves witches and movie making, and a rather nifty way to combine the two. For this, the narrative jumps a couple of decades or so for each part of the story, which may or may not work for some readers, but is conceptually interesting. Overall, not the author's best. Reads quickly due to the aforementioned low word-per-page density. Probably shouldn't be one's introduction to Chapman as his writing has gotten much smoother since. A success of his own remaking, one might say ;)  A very interesting imagining of apocalypse by insomnia. Things fall apart quickly (too quickly?) once most people lose the ability to sleep in this Vancouver-set story. The readers get to follow the protagonist, a misanthropic etymology writer, as he navigates the sleepless new world, warring factions and all.
The real standout here is the writing, which is most impressive, especially for a debut. As far as I can tell, Nod was the late author's only novel, and it's a solid literary legacy to leave behind. A dour, depressing, descent into madness. Much the way dystopias are meant to be written. At about 256 pages, the book is light, but it weighs heavily. A worthy read.  I will read just about anything featuring freaks, freakshows, etc. So if even if this novel's lurid cover didn't draw me in, I'd still be into it.
The book begins with a lengthy disclaimer to appease the "softer" readership of the modern age. The freakshow rolls into a small Scottish town. The townies are all variously repressed and backwards. The freaks are all progressive and liberated. The two mix about as nicely as oil and water, but mix they do. Romantically, sexually, emotionally, etc. For the freaks of Freakslaw are just that irresistible. And it all ends about as happily as you might have expected. So that's it for the basic plot. The real star of the show here is the writing. It's also some of the downside. First and foremost, Flett's style is striking, synesthetic, dazzling. She can turn a phrase beautifully and has a considerable gift for metaphor. But it's all a bit too self-aware, which results in a sort of precociousness where you can just imagine the author laboriously crafting each sentence to precisely the right degree of whimsy. Moreover, it ends up overwhelming the novel. Yes, there is such a thing as too many metaphors, similes, etc. It's possible to overwrite something. This is Frett's debut, after all. And it is definitely possible to overwrite something to the point where it overwhelms the plot itself. That said, it is certainly a very impressive debut and a very interesting novel from an obviously gifted author. I'm sure it'll find its adoring audience. Thanks Netgalley.  Interesting. A real chin stroker of a book. I read and enjoyed the author's Turbulence, so I thought I'd check out more of his work. This is a very different book. The thing is I'm not quite sure how much of that is on purpose.
Flesh is essentially a biographical book that follows its protagonist, Istvan, from age 15 to late middle age. It follows him very closely and yet feels strikingly distant. Mostly because Istvan is such a muted character. He barely speaks or expresses emotions. Most of his actions are reactions. Basically, he's the kind of person to whom life happens. This life is described in leaps and bounds, occasionally skipping years, as he goes from one experience to another, with very pronounced ups and downs. And yet seldom if ever do you feel like you know him or get him or care about him at all. The author uses a very spare style of narrative, which makes for a quick read, but feels a bit like a conversation with one-word answers. Most of Istvans are "Okay." Not just him, either. I'm surprised the author didn't just name the novel Okay for how often he uses the word. And it would have bene rather accurate, too, since as a reading experience it was just okay. Thanks Netgalley.  I've actually read this a while back, but thought about it again, after seeing the
wildly underwhelming movie adaptation recently, so here is my review of the book. And if you hop on over to the movie side of this blog, you'll find my movie review. The story now has a sequel and a major movie adaptation. As far as I can tell nothing explains the success of The Watchers, so perhaps it is merely the latest reminder of how quality often has nothing to do with popularity these days. The Watchers, in theory, had it going on, well on track to be the novel to watch. A creepy setting in the Irish woods, a creepy as all get out take on faeries, a genuinely nice claustrophobic mood throughout and a couple of really excellent plot twists. And yet, lamentably, it didn’t work. Specifically, it all but collapsed under the weight of its own writing. Weird thing to say about a book, but there it is. This novel was just overwritten into tedium, no consideration for pace, it dragged and lagged quite strikingly for such a reasonable page count, making it seem like a much longer read. The narrative was dense and slow rolling, barely giving itself any rest with dialogue. It just made you sleepy. The main adjectives that come to mind are ponderous and soporific, which is obviously far from ideal. It's perfectly competent, technically, it just doesn't shine, ironically enough. So yeah, however well intended, there’s just no character or plot twist or narrative surprise in this book that was worth the plodding slog of reading this book. Unless you’re into that sort of thing. Pass. Thanks Netgalley.  My third read by the author. Can't quite get to the five-stars with him, though this one comes close.
Twist is a story of a diver and underwater cable repairman who goes rogue and a reporter who tries to figure out what happened. It's a fairly straight-forward, simple plot because this novel is about the trees rather than the forest. McCann spends the entire time zooming in instead of out, so that you get the most minute details of the characters' lives and activities, which can be interesting and very immersive but also somewhat exhausting. The narrative is very Gatsby-esque in style, with the main character, a rather unexciting reporter, orbiting a much-more exciting and unknowable Conway, the mystery man. And for all that orbiting and speculation, no matter how detailed, Conway remains largely just that - a mystery. A bit frustratingly so, but also a great reminder that in real life, it's very difficult and sometimes impossible to truly know another person. Knowing its strengths and shortcomings, the novel smartly keeps it brief at just 256 pages. The real star here is the beauty of language. McCann's writing is devastatingly beautiful, and it alone makes this a worthy read. Thanks Netgalley.  Some people watch the Matrix movies and go "Whoa." Some come up with this sort of thing. Let's hear it for the creatives out there.
Okay, now then ... Let me preface this review by saying that I don't care for long books. Anything over 400 pages seldom proves worth the time and often comes across as indulgently verbose. Yet did I hesitate picking up this 464-page book? Nope. The reason being - Daryl Gregory. I'm a total fan, have been for a while, since he first came out with his wildly unique nightmares before veering into the sci-fi/fantasy territory. And sure enough, this was a really great read, though it took some time to get through. Much like Blake Crouch's recent work (another author with a similar career trajectory), it involves a grand speculative idea. That idea here is: everyone is living in a simulation, knows about it, and has known about it for seven years. The glitches in the simulation cause a series of Impossibles (strange sights defying known laws of physics, etc.), and the novel follows a guided tour to these attractions and a colorful cast of characters on the tour bus. The novel probably is slightly indulgent and likely could have been slightly shorter, but Gregory's too good of a writer to mind and has created too fun of a road trip to deny. All in all, a great read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.  I appreciated the author's debut, Assembly, more than I enjoyed it. But her follow-up, Universality, true to its name, had more of an immersive, inclusive appeal.
The book can be described in deceptively simple way as the circumstances and aftermath of one man hitting another with a gold ingot. The beautiful thing about this novel is that there is nothing simple about it. The author expertly peels layer after layer to create a complex and oh-so-spot-on representation of the modern zeitgeist: wealth division, racism, xenophobia, privilege, wokeism, and all the rest. The book is visceral, clever, brilliantly written, and difficult to put down no matter how repulsive its characters may come across. Each individual's perspective is presented in a such matter-of-factly way as to remind the reader that these people are all around us, that this is who you're sharing the world with, and their perceived evils and sins can be tragically, shockingly ordinary. What's more remarkable is that the author managed to do all that well under 200 pages. And this is, in fact, considerably longer than her debut. Natasha Brown's writing is succinct but never sparse. And it's so impressive in this day and age of oversized books and a beautiful reminder that a novel can have a serious weight to it without doing so literally. For that alone, I'm uprating my review to all stars. A great, thought-provoking, compelling read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.  Simply put, this graphic novel is a stunner. Sure, the artist had good material to work with; they don't give out Pulitzers for nothing, but what he's done here is still remarkable. Each panel shines. Each stark, devastating scene is spectacular. Larcenet sings bleakness like no other, and this exceptionally bleak tale is all the better for it.
A very close adaptation, it shows a true understanding of the original by the artist and brings a new dimension to it for the readers. Still heartbreaking, but isn't that what good art does, anyway? Very good, great, terrific. Recommended. |
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